rded himself against any unnecessary
exposure. He wore a dark coat, and dark trowsers which he pushed into
his high boots, and also a grey hat, one of those called, you know,
_Comecipare_, in which attire, so long as he kept in the shadow of the
oaks and chestnuts, it would have been hard even in the day-time to
distinguish him from the trunk of a tree.

"Now it so happened that the night was still and beautiful, and he told
me he had never so much enjoyed the gloomy forest, and had never had
Erminia's form and face so vividly present and near to him as they then
seemed. The dog silently and wearily crept on after him, and he himself
was lost in dreams, having never hoped that on this occasion he should
meet with his enemy, but being led on and on merely for the sake of
exercise, and by the exquisite coolness of the night.

"He had he thought wandered thus--creeping and climbing
alternately--for more than an hour, when the dog suddenly stood still
and growled. Instantly the captain's hand was on his gun, but before he
could look round, two shots were fired close to him, and he felt that
he had received a wound in the leg. At the same moment he saw a fellow
stand out from behind a great ilex and level a pistol, but he was
beforehand with him, and took such good aim that he shot off the lock
of the pistol and two fingers of the hand that held it; whereupon the
villain took flight, and ran along the steep path with such speed that
neither the dog--who to be sure was no longer so agile as he had
been--nor the second barrel of the English gun reached him. The captain
had paid dear for his night walk. The wound in his leg bled so much
that the bandage he improvised with pocket and neck-handkerchief was of
little use. So having re-loaded both barrels, he set out homewards, but
contrived to lose his way, the moonlight confusing him, and it was only
after much fruitless wandering about that he saw the roof of his villa
shining above the vineyards, and he was then so exhausted with loss of
blood and fatigue, that he sank down on a stone, and was obliged to
rest awhile before he could rise and drag himself over the last hundred
yards.

"But one there was past rising, and that was the dog. The second shot
had wounded him more seriously than the first his master, and having
limped after him thus far without a whine of complaint, his strength
was spent, and he moaned away his faithful life. The captain told me he
felt his blood ru